This story's first chapter was written for an English project. It is a facfiction about Romeo & Juliet, with Romeo, Juliet, and Benvolio, Catcher in the Rye, with Holden and Pheobe, and To kill a Mockingbird, with Atticus, Scout, and Jem.

This story was written for an English project, only this chapter though. It is a facfiction about Romeo & Juliet, with Romeo, Juliet, and Benvolio, Catcher in the Rye, with Holden and Pheobe, and To kill a Mockingbird, with Atticus, Scout, and Jem. They are all living in the modern century and this has caused them to be altered from their original clothing and their priorities are much different. They face modern problems and obsticales. This is my English project continued:

"We have to go!" Ben yelled as his thick wavy hair matted to his sweaty forehead. His deep blue eyes were wide and bewildered as he clutched his rifle close. Ben wore tan steal toed boots, camouflage pants covered in paintball splatters, and a faded green shirt.

"Roy, we have to go now! Grab Jewel and let's go!" Ben growled pounding on the wooden door. He turned and put his back to it and breathed heavy. He stared down the stone hallway.

"Keep your head on, I was grabbing a few things" Jewel said rolling her eyes as she opened the door. Ben stumbled in backwards. Jewel was wearing jean capris and a red sports bra under a white tank top. She had a undone black hoodie on. She spun giving a 360 view of herself. She had grey runners on and her chocolate hair was up in a ponytail. Roy was standing next to her in his blue jays baseball cap and camouflage pants and boots that matched Ben's.

Jewel grabbed her bag and threw it onto her back looping both arms in. She took her crossbow that was leaning on the wall just inside the door. The room was dark, Roy must have blown out the candle since he was stuffing something still smoking into his bag. He threw his bag on and the three headed out.

The Museum was well fortified but had no food or running water, only old weapons. Jewel took an old rifle off the wall and hooked it behind her back as they walked. In the main room the stench was worst; they stepped over some shapes in the dark and opened the doors into the rest of the museum. Stepping softly they made their way to the stairs and walked down them careful not to make a noise. They past an Indian war canoe filled with well-done mannequins and a native girl weaving a cloth, the cloth she wore was a bit short so someone could see her plastic bosom.

"Hear that?" Roy asked as he put up his hand signaling everyone to stop. Holding their breaths they heard a banging and low angry growling. They past a glass box with as Eskimo ice fishing to find themselves staring at a door with a man pounding on it. He seemed angry and muddled. He had the night guard's uniform on but it had some red stains over his left shoulder. He was pounding at two swinging doors with large print that clearly stated to pull, not push the doors. Jewel took a step forward and held up her crossbow. She lined it up with the man's head as he turned around. His skin was a dull grey and his eyes had gone fully white. The left side of his face was covered in blood and a chunk of skin was flapping from his jaw.

"Rrraaagggghhhh" he groaned and started half limping towards Jewel. She squeezed the trigger and the man fell to the ground with an arrow through his head. She went up to the corpse and pulled the arrow out. She stared down at it before giving it a harsh kick to the ribs.

Ben grabbed her shoulders pulling her away and Roy took her hugging her close. Tears ran down her face. He looked a lot like Jewel's father who had abandoned her after she ran off to marry Roy, the high school drop-out, not Paris the foreign exchange student who had moved to New York just to be with her. Paris was well off, smart, romantic, and even had a few good jokes but he didn't love her, he was in love with how she looked and acted publicly. Roy loved her the way she was privately. She hadn't seen her father since their marriage four years before.

"Hey guys, come take a look. There are two kids in there" Ben said pulling open the one of the doors after looking inside the window. Jewel straightened up and took Roy's hand as they followed Ben. Inside the doors was a small theatre and at the very front there was an older boy was holding an Indian spear replica with a little girl no more than eight years old behind him.

"Hey kid, it's alright, security guards dead, for good this time" Roy said and the boy, holding the girl's hand, walked toward them. They were both a little shaky but were not injured in any way.

"Hello, my names Benvolio, but you can call me Ben, that's Romeo and Juliet" Ben said holding out his hand. The boy shifted a red hunting cap to his other and shook Ben's hand.

"I'm Holden Caulfield and this is my sister Phoebe" Holden said. Holden was wearing a thick over coat, jeans and dress shoes and Phoebe had a pink shirt on and jeans with dazzle beads all over them in flower designs. She had a blue knit hat on making her blonde hair push forwards framing her face. She had gloves that matched.

"You can call me Jewel" Jewel said shaking his hand.

"and I'm Roy for short" Roy said keeping both hands on his rifle.

"What are you guys doing here?" Roy asked.

"We were at the park across the street when some girl with skates on and two guys came after us. I thought they were muggers at first until they grabbed some kid that ran up to them and, well, ate her. What are you guys doing in here?" Holden asked.

"We woke up and found the streets pretty much deserted so we decided to have a paintball war with our friends, there were two more of us but when Cindy started to eat James, we booked it. There was an army road block set up but no one was there. We got some weapons and ammo, Jewel prefers arrows though" Roy said wrapping his arm around Jewel.

"Where are you headed?" Phoebe asked.

"Well reports are that a small farming city is being used as a survivor safe zone. It's in Alabama, Maycomb I think it was called" Jewel told them

"You guys have anywhere to stay?" Ben asked.

"No, we saw our parents in with the other sick people" Holden said squeezing Phoebe's hand.

"Why don't you come along with us, I still have my rifle but use the crossbow. You can have it" Jewel said. They agreed Holden and his sister would come along to Maycomb.

Walking outside the museum the sun blinded them for a few seconds. As their eyes adjusted they saw rows upon rows of abandon cars on the roads and a stench that made them gag. Holden took a red hunting cap out of his pocket and put it on, it looked very out of place but he didn't seem to care so no one said anything. Walking down Main Street it seemed all the walking dead had stayed indoors, as if they preferred to come out at night. Ben walked in the lead showing Holden how to shoot the rifle Jewel had given him. Roy held up the back and Jewel was free to talk with Phoebe.

"So, Holden really loves you doesn't he" Jewel said.

"He just got kicked out of school" Phoebe said.

"So a lot was rough at home huh?"

"Yeah, but he brought me an album, He broke it before I got to play it though"

"It's nice he got you one"

"Holden is a great big brother, just needs to care about stuff once in a while" Phoebe explained. Jewel thought she sort of understood, she wished her dad would have cared about her more than the family name, maybe asked her what she wanted not just make her marry rich. Her dad was the state governor of New York; Paris had the potential of taking his place.

Roy found a jeep and, by siphoning off abandoned cars, managed to gather enough gas to drive to Alabama. The roads were long and surrounded by farm fields. Every now and then they would pass a dead body on the road or see one walking across it. They didn't have the ammunition to exterminate the zombified people, just keep them away.

As they got closer to Maycomb billboards and plywood set up with arrows pointing to Maycomb had 'safe zone' sprayed across them. Then, just a hundred miles away, a sign was in the middle of the road. Roy was driving, he stopped the car and everyone read the sign with a smile spreading across their faces.

'Welcome to civilization, WELCOME TO MAYCOMB' was written in huge red letters on a billboard.

"I can't wait for a warm shower" Ben said.

"I can't wait for you to have a shower, warm or cold, as long as it has soap" Jewel laughed.

Spirits were high as they drove around the sign and headed down the old country road. They came to the town but the military bunkers were empty. The town was deserted. It was getting dark and the small town couldn't have had that many people so they decided to stay the night. Driving up to an old clock tower everyone got out and grabbed their bags. The doors were in good shape, easy to barricade. Inside they closed the two giant wooden doors into the clock tower. Roy and Ben found some desks in a room used for storage and pushed them into the door to block it up. The group began its climb up the stairs to the tower.

"Oh cut your whining it's only five" Ben said rolling his eyes. Finally Roy was listening to him, did Roy listen to him about Jewel being dangerous, about marrying her being a bad idea, about anything? No. Not until a zombie apocalypse did Roy care about what happened to those around him. He was a wimp but as stubborn as an ox, a love sick ox who'd fall for anyone with Jewel's looks. Ben had taken off after Roy had gotten into a street fight with some rival kid, Tyler, and got their best friend killed. Ben still blamed him for it but wasn't going to suffer the loss of another friend. Plus Jewel wasn't that bad, she was cautious and a good shot.

At the top they walked around the big bronze bell to look over the town. Shadows had crept over the town and as it did the dead had come out to roam on the lookout for a living creature to feast on. Ben was amazing how Phoebe had held onto her innocence, Holden covered her eyes and told her not to look, he was very protective of her. Phoebe was smart but she didn't see that if it wasn't for her, he would have no ties to keep going, even if there was no apocalypse. She was everything he had, he sat down against the stone half wall to keep anyone from falling off the tower. Phoebe lay down in his arms. She pushed her chin under his neck.

"Guys look!" Jewel yelled and pointed at a man and two children running toward the tower, three farmers were chasing them.

Hearts beating in their ears, their father had both their hands, his rifle was empty. He was a sure shot but not a bar fighting hand to hand type of man. Shwoop. One of the three figures chasing fell to the ground with an arrow in his neck with a bright red feather on it. BANG. Another fell. Shwoop. The last one fell but got up again and dragged his leg with an arrow through it. BANG. He fell.

"I got him, don't worry" Roy said holding his rifle high. Jewel gave him a look then wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

"Oh where would I be without my Romeo?" She asked and he hugged her close. Ben cleared his throat, annoyed.

"You two go unblock the doors and get them inside, Holden and I will keep an eye out up here" Ben said. Roy and Jewel ran quickly down the stairs.

The three of them ran to the door, there were no other zombies around. Roy came back up the stairs with two young children followed by a tall man with glasses. Jewel followed them up.

"Hello, thank you for saving us. I've got no idea what has gotten into the towns people" The man said

"It's a sickness that makes dead people, well, not so dead. But they become cannibals" Ben said and stuck out his hand.

"My name is Benvolio, that's Juliet, Romeo, Holden, and Phoebe" Ben said and the man shook his hand.

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Atticus Finch and these are my children Jean Lousie and Jeremy" Atticus said. He was tall and thin. He had a lawyers suit on with shiny dress shoes and round glasses. He was clean cut and spoke very fatherly.

"Everybody calls me Jem, and Jean goes by Scout" Jeremy said sticking out his hand to shake and Ben shook it. Scout didn't shake, she was still in a state of shock, she was only a young child. She had short brown hair in a bowl cut like a boy. She wore a red plaid shirt under a pair of jean overalls. She looked like a little boy. Her brother, Jem, had on a blue plaid shirt and a pair of jean overalls that were more scuffed up than Scouts.

"We got a long night; they don't go away until morning. So, what's your story Atticus?" Roy asked as he sat down with Jewel in his arms. Holden sat back down with Phoebe falling asleep on his shoulder and Atticus had both his children tucked into his sides. Ben sat on the edge of the half wall with his rifle keeping watch.

"At first we thought there was another mob. There was a trial here a few days ago and I was defending a boy named Tom Robinson, a coloured boy. There was a drunken mob that had come to the town jail to kill Tom but Scout talked them down. After the case Tom's accuser, Bob Ewell said he would get his revenge even though he did win the trial and Tom was charged. But folk around here don't go about eating one another so we knew something was wrong. I thought they had gone mad as a dog in January" Atticus said. Jewel looked up at Roy with a strange look on her face.

"Rabies, he means rabies" Ben said, his eyes still on the road below.

Later that night Atticus was on watch and Scout sat beside Phoebe. They got to talking and were amazed by how they thought the same. They both agreed their brothers were almost impossible to understand every once in a while but they both were very protective of their little sisters. They both had moments of disobedience and sometimes did things they couldn't explain. The two girls giggled and watched Holden and Jem talk. They were sitting on the wall and Jem was pointing out where the Radley place was.

"After he saved us he just went back into the house, I'll bet he's still there too. Folk won't bother him. He is scarier than Boo Radley's father…and he has been dead for a while now" Jem looked around for a bit at the people stumbling around and pointed out one man "That's him there"

"What's so scary about the Radley boy? Who cares gaddamnit?" Holden asked

"Holden quit swearing" Phoebe hissed.

"What the hell's wrong with swearing?" Scout asked.

"It is not polite, and don't say hell" Phoebe said, she was on the ball about people staying polite even during everything. Roy got up and laid Jewel's head down on the wooden floor as she slept and sat on the wall beside Holden and Jem.

"So, what are we going to do?" Roy asked.

"About what?" Atticus asked turning around to join the conversation.

"Well are we going to stick together or what? This was supposed to be the safe zone, it's not. Would you guys want to come with us?" Ben asked. Everyone looked around at each other for a bit.

"I'd like to stay together. I think we'd have a better chance" Holden said, a spark in his eye.

"Yesum, I want to stay too Atticus, I want to stay with Phoebe" Scout said. She didn't much care for 'girly' things but Phoebe and she had really hit it off. Everyone seemed to just fit together like a puzzle.

"Oh Romeo, my Romeo. Where art thou Romeo?" Jewel yawned.

"Right here Juliet, I won't be going anywhere" Roy smiled and waved at his slowly waking wife. They were each other's only family since they faked their deaths.

Everyone just seemed to click together like they were old friends and they decided they would stay together and try to pick up the pieces of their former selves after the sickness had torn apart every major city and every small town. It had taken over most of America and the group was together because of it. They decided to head south, to Mississippi. It was called a very strong red-neck state and had managed to keeps its ground, even when the military couldn't.

Atticus, the father type kept everyone under his watchful eye and proved his sure shot almost every day, Phoebe was getting some tough training from Scout and in return Scout was learning that being a girl wasn't so bad. Holden had made a breakthrough and became good friends with Ben and Jem. Roy and Jewel gave the group its first glimmer of hope as they reached Mississippi when they not only found it was a safe place but that Jewel was pregnant. Even after the group began rebuilding their own separate lives, they stayed together, a strange friendship that was rare between such different people. Though with no goverment functioning they learned other countires had fallen just as bad, rescue would not come from overseas, if it came at all.

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